Plot Your Course for Implementing an Inbound Marketing System
Too often, businesses launch an inbound marketing campaign without plotting a course. To be sure, marketers are afforded ample creativity with respect to their advertising approaches when promoting their product or service online, but failure to plot a course could be devastating to your inbound marketing campaign.
Why Developing Your Buyer Personas is Critical for a Great Inbound Marketing Campaign
Inbound marketing relies heavily upon creating great, meaningful content. The message and information you share needs to be relevant, informative and useful to your end-users. Additionally, consider the media and forums through which you intend to convey your message. Are these the places your audience goes and seeks information?
One of the first and often overlooked steps in developing an effective inbound marketing campaign is to develop buying personas for your target audience. The purpose of the buyer persona is to delve deep inside into who your audience is: How they think, what they do each day, what challenges and struggles do they have? Who are influencers in their lives? What are their likes and dislikes? Where do they go to hangout or seek information? Do they have a problem, itch, or burning issue that a solution is not apparent?
All of this information is put together into a profile, so you understand how to craft a message that will connect and resonate with them. A message that connects so deeply, they walk away from it firmly believing you’re the only company that truly understand them.
Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is Equally Important to Your Inbound Marketing Campaign
Simply knowing, understanding and developing great Buyer Personas that apply to your target audience is not enough. You also want to create 3-4 well defined Unique Selling Propositions (USPs). After all, if you cannot craft a well-defined message articulating how you are better, faster or stronger and provide more reliable solutions and are head and shoulders above your competition then why would customers bother buying from you? Yes, you know and understand them. However that is all the more reason for you to deliver a much better solution, product or service that has killer USPs.
Just to help you along, many businesses try and differentiate themselves from the big box store by stating they are “family owned and operated.” First of all, who really gives a flip if you are family owned? I certainly don’t. I’m more concerned with whether you will deliver what you promised.
The second one that most businesses espouse is: “We’re focused on customer service.” As a consumer, I hope so. Why would I buy from a company that isn’t focused on the customer? After all isn’t every company in business because of its customers. So, shouldn’t they be the focus of every company? Sure some businesses suck at customer service, but they don’t put on their site: “buy from us because we suck at customer service and we’ll treat you like crap.”
If you developed some great buyer personas and truly know who your buyers are developing killer USPs that connect with them will be a snap.
For some great USPs consider what your competition and the industry standard offer is then blow it away. Think about how you can re-engineer how products or services are delivered to your customer. What guarantees can you put in place that will blow your competitors out of the water? How about an elite status as a customer that provides them with extra services they don’t expect.
The Ending or Is it the Beginning of Something Great?
Every building needs a strong foundation. So it is with an effective inbound marketing campaign. If you don’t lay a strong foundation, disaster awaits you: Wasted resources, failed campaigns flushing marketing dollars all down the drain.
Take the time to develop your buyer personas and 3-4 great USPs based on your buyer’s needs, wants, desires, likes, dislikes. Having your USPs and aligning them with your buyer personas will put you on a path to see your sales take off.
